Atoms for Peace Agency

AGREEMENT on a charter for the proposed International Atomic Energy Agency was reached unanimously last month by a working group of delegates from twelve nations, including the US and the USSR. The draft statute, which defines the organizational structure and voting procedures of the agency, is to be submitted for consideration by representatives of eighty‐four countries belonging to the United Nations or its specialized agencies at a conference to be held in September at UN headquarters in New York. If the charter receives the endorsement of the conference, it then must be ratified by at least eighteen governments before it can come into force. It is intended that the agency will be set up to function as a clearing house and depository for atomic materials and will be empowered to distribute materials from its pool to be used for peaceful purposes for the benefit of all. Agreement by the working group on the terms of the charter represents the first major step towards establishment of the agency, which was proposed by President Eisenhower in a speech before the UN in December 1953.